Question Games Crash/Freeze - 3 year old PC, recent issue

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omnilicious

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2011
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Specs:
CPU: i9900ks
GPU: MSI 2080ti
RAM: 16GB trident z
Board: Hero Max XI
PSU: Seasonic prime ultra 750 w
Storage: C:\ = Evo 970 pro (1TB), D:\ = Corsair MP510 (2tb)
OS: Windows 10 21H2


What's happening?

Starting playing Dragon Age: Inquisition - all was well until 40-60 hours in the game started freezing and needed to be 'end processed'. This was happening once every 6-8 hours at first, but after a couple weeks of continuing to play it was happening every 3-5 minutes. Sometimes it would pop up a directX error.

Underclocking GPU made it work - until my PC shutdown (Yeah UNDERclocking crashed my PC).

I thought it was a DAI specific issue until I opened up Battletech, which I just played 100 hours of with no issues and it also froze and crashed. COD: Warzone also freezes and crashes (this one to a directX error). Heroes of the storm plays fine, CS:GO plays fine.


What I've done:
Uninstalled/Reinstalled graphics drivers
Run games in various compatibility modes
Change display settings in windows and NVidia control panel
Removed all overlays (Not sure I had any on to begin with, but I checked).
Repair attempts on steam/origins
vcredist_x64 and x86 used to repair/uninstall/reinstall
fullscreen/windowed/etc.
RAM seated properly
PSU Cables re-done (and there are 3 individual cables from the PSU to the GPU)



A bunch of other stuff from google searches and forum searches here.


Oddity - I've noticed on games that are likely to crash, in-game buttons (ACCEPT for example) will need to be clicked twice before they work.


Since my PC worked just fine for almost 3 years, I assume that a reformat would solve whatever problem, but it's a huge PITA and the problem may either return or persist.

I believe it's a directX issue, but I don't know where it would have come from. The only thing I remember having issues with at the time these crashes started was trying to play Elden Ring - which I ended up refunding because of the stuttering.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Last edited:
XMP should have been enabled already - but it looks like my bios went back to Auto for some reason.

UserBenchmarks: Game 187%, Desk 105%, Work 190%
CPU: Intel Core i9-9900KF - 101.3%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080-Ti - 186.5%
SSD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB - 324.8%
SSD: Corsair Force NVMe PCIe M.2 2TB - 213.2%
RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z RGB DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB - 98.2%
MBD: Asus ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO (WI-FI)




Tentatively calling this solved. New powerstrip seems to have made the biggest difference - went with a more robust one Tripp-Lite Iso.

Enabling XMP since it likely switched off when I reseated the ram before also helped smooth out choppiness I was noticing.

A freaking power strip issue :'( .

I wouldn't have ever guessed that tbh. Glad you figured it out.
 
I wouldn't have ever guessed that tbh. Glad you figured it out.


New strip definitely had an effect, but after reformat, everything is still crashing. My entire PC freezes for a minute when the crash happens.


Unlikely to be software, I downloaded a cloud version of windows 10 to make sure it was a new install and not keep anything of the original. All my components are testing fine. Both drives have different games that are crashing on them, and they're crashing on both. I have no idea where to go from here.


On occasion I do get a crash where my video cards fans are maxed out and the screen is black (card is cold when this happens). But that one is pretty rare.
 
New strip definitely had an effect, but after reformat, everything is still crashing. My entire PC freezes for a minute when the crash happens.


Unlikely to be software, I downloaded a cloud version of windows 10 to make sure it was a new install and not keep anything of the original. All my components are testing fine. Both drives have different games that are crashing on them, and they're crashing on both. I have no idea where to go from here.


On occasion I do get a crash where my video cards fans are maxed out and the screen is black (card is cold when this happens). But that one is pretty rare.

I wish you luck, I am totally out of ideas, Sorry I could not be more of a help.
 
Swapped my Video Card to slot 2 on PCI-E - no crashes.


Gonna go out on a limb here and say it's my MOBO's PCIe Lane 1.


Of course starting an RMA with ASUS is harder than debugging the issue to begin with, but I have 1 month left of warranty.

I think Asus still offers cross-ship with a credit card hold.